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CD alloy boosts flash card memory

THE miniaturisation that has led to a seemingly endless rise in the capacity of flash memory cards – which many cellphones, cameras and music players rely on to store data – may soon hit a wall. Fortunately, a way through that wall has been lurking in your CDs and DVDs all along.

Flash memory cards store data in the form of electrical charge, with the presence of charge signifying a 1 and its absence a 0. The charge is stored in a combination of a capacitor and a transistor, etched into silicon chips. So far, chip makers have relied on making these …